A draft of an updated
constitution for Cuba approved by the island's National Assembly on 22
July has made headlines as much for what was left out as what was put
in. Here are highlights of what's in, what's out and what's staying in
the proposed new Cuban constitution.

Why the plans for a
new constitution?

The proposed 224-article
new constitution will replace the 1976 national charter that enshrined
one-party communism on the island following Fidel Castro's 1959
revolution.

Acknowledging that
Cuba and the world had changed since 1976, newly-elected Cuban
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the new realities meant the
constitution was "obliged" to be updated, and he called the reform "deep".

Mr Díaz-Canel, who
took over from Fidel Castro's brother Raúl on 19 April - the first
time for decades Cuba's head of state has not carried the name Castro
- said the new document would reflect "the now and the future of the
nation".

Proposed changes that
recognise same-sex marriage, but drop a previously stated objective of
constructing a "communist society" in Cuba, have drawn intense media
attention. However, the Caribbean nation definitely will be keeping
its one-party socialist political and economic system, ruled over by
the Communist Party of Cuba.

While it has already
been approved "unanimously" by the 600-plus assembly deputies, Cuban
officials said the document would be subjected to a process of
"popular consultation" among the island's people, to gather comments
and suggestions, before being submitted for final approval in a
national referendum.

In: Marriage 'between
two persons'

One alteration that
attracted comment both inside and outside the island was the proposal
to redefine the institution of marriage as being between "two persons"
rather than "a man and a woman" - a change effectively opening the way
for the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

This was undoubtedly
a novelty in a country where the communist authorities - in the name
of "revolutionary morality" - had persecuted homosexuals as "scum" in
the first few decades following the 1959 revolution, often dispatching
them to work camps along with priests and other "anti-social" elements.

Since the collapse of
the Soviet bloc after 1989 which pushed Cuba to open up more to the
outside world, official attitudes to both religion and homosexuality
have eased.

In the 21-22 July
debate by the National Assembly on the revised constitution, Cuban
media made a point of highlighting the support for the marriage
re-definition expressed by "deputy Mariela Castro" - the 55-year-old
daughter of Cuban Communist Party leader and former president Raúl
Castro.

In: Role of the
market

While reaffirming the
overriding principles of a "socialist" economy and central economic
planning, the proposed new charter gives formal juridical recognition
to the "the role of the market", and "private property" as one of a
range of types of property existing in the Cuban economy.

The "market" and
"private ownership" are both key elements of Western capitalism which
were long pilloried as corrupting generators of inequality by Cuba's
Communist Party rulers.

So the changes
reflect the realities of Cuba's own experience, which saw the island
forced to open itself up more to foreign tourism and investment after
the disappearance of its Soviet benefactor, including allowing of
private self-employed economic activities and enterprises for which
more than half a million Cubans currently have licences.

Observers saw the
constitutional tweaks moving Cuba in the direction of - but still far
from close to - the types of "market socialism" currently practised by
political allies like China and Vietnam.

However, unlike those
countries, Cuban officials and state media were still expressing
public aversion to the idea of excessive individual enrichment, and
the revised constitution continues to prohibit private "concentration
of property".

In: Prime minister
and governors

The constitutional
reform introduces proposed novelties in the organisation and hierarchy
of the Cuban state.

One is the creation
of the post of prime minister, to lead the Council of Ministers
(cabinet) in the day-to-day running of the country. This prime
minister would be designated by the National Assembly at the proposal
of the president.

This reinstates a
position that had existed in the early years of the Cuban revolution.

Another change is a
proposal to have governors ruling Cuba's 15 provinces - instead of the
current presidents of provincial assemblies - but the new
constitutional text also stresses the importance of "municipal
autonomy".

Out: Aiming for a
'communist society'

The elimination of
the phrase "to advance towards communist society" has generated the
most attention and comment. The revised article retains the goal of
"the construction of socialism".

Some media jumped on
this change. "Cuba renounces communism," was the excited headline
carried by Cuban dissident website CiberCuba on 21 July.

Even inside Cuba, the
proposed alteration has produced debate, for example, on the curated
readers' comments section of the official Communist Youth daily
Juventud Rebelde on 22 July.

Reader "Juan R Oro"
wrote: "The majority of us Cubans are not in agreement with this
project of a constitution nor with the fact that the word communism is
eliminated from this."

Another reader, "El
Oriental" (The Easterner) had a different view: "Jose del Oro, if
communism has been a failure in Europe and what it does is keep
investors away, why keep insisting on an obsolete and demonstrably
failed system which does not evolve, it simply disappears."

Staying: Communist
Party of Cuba and single-party system

Cuban leaders and
official media made very clear however the island was not giving up
its one-party socialist system, or the pre-dominance of the ruling
Communist Party, specifically defined as "Fidelist" and
"Marxist-Leninist".

Communist Party daily
Granma declared on 23 July: "The [constitution] project reaffirms the
socialist character of our political, economic and socialist system,
as well as the directing role of the Communist Party of Cuba."

In comments carried
on state TV, Cuban National Assembly President Esteban Lazo assured
viewers that "the ideology" was not being "lost" but updated to aim
for "sovereign, independent, democratic, prosperous and sustainable
socialism".

Many Cuban exiles and
anti-government dissidents were unimpressed by the proposed
constitutional changes.

In an apparently
mocking reference to the continuation of the one-party state, Cuban
dissident website 14yMedio carried a 22 July commentary headlined:
"There will be no transition in Cuba... not even to communism".

Some exile
commentators were asking whether the alterations meant Cuba's
schoolchildren, who start each day with a salute and the words
"Pioneers for communism! We will be like Che [Guevara]!" would be
changing their slogan now.

Cubanálisis -
El Think-Tank

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